An enormous chim Lạc snatches Mai from her school library in the present day and lifts her high above Sa Pa more than 2,000 years ago.
Just an hour earlier, she had been speaking with her teacher about an upcoming class presentation, explaining how nothing interested her about Vietnam’s historic fashions. Little could Mai have expected how the flight would bring about an opportunity to observe the fabled Trưng sisters’ fight for independence, which would change her opinion on traditional clothing and women’s role in society.
This empowering theme carries the plot in “The Ancient Bracelet,” a recently released webcomic from Adventures of Asia aimed at middle-school students but relevant to people of all ages. The current collection of 14 free-to-access webcomics also features stories from Japan, South Korea, India, China, South Korea and the US. In addition to “The Ancient Bracelet,” its attention to Vietnam includes “Sơn Đoòng,” which details a fantastic journey into the namesake cave filled with powerful thuồng luồng, enormous turtles and mystical curative herbs.
The lush depiction of its magical subterranean world created by Saigon-based artist Tường Vân (TiVen) initially caught the attention of Saigoneer. A conversation with Phuong Ha, the editor of “Sơn Đoòng” and writer of “Ancient Bracelet,” revealed the two works to be a part of a much larger and thoughtful effort to bring Asian culture to audiences around the world than we’d expected.
Building cultural bridges
“When people think about Vietnam here [the USA], if it's not about the war, it's about phở or maybe Anthony Bourdain going to visit for its food. I am very proud of our food and it should be celebrated, but I tried to think about what, as a Vietnamese American, I would want to learn more about to be able to brag, like the biodiversity of Vietnam, which is incredible. And then the Trưng sisters came up in conversations because it’s really cool to fight the narrative about submissive Asian women,” Phuong shared via Zoom when asked how the topics for the two Vietnamese comics were selected.
The Adventures of Asia comics are produced by The Asia Society, a nonprofit institution with large cultural centers in New York, Houston and Hong Kong and additional locations throughout the world including India, France, Japan, Australia and the Philippines. Founded in 1956, the group’s aims are diverse and far-reaching with projects dedicated to arts, culture, business, public policy and education.
The three cultural centers act as hubs for many arts and education programs, performances, workshops and events for their surrounding communities in connection with global partners. Phuong Ha, a senior education and outreach manager at the Houston center, explained that her job involves a variety of tasks for different projects united around an aim to “educate our community about Asian cultures and Asian American-related issues.”
A piece of a larger mission
The webcomic series began as an extension of the center’s first permanent exhibition: Explore Asia. Highlighting the five Asian groups with a prominent diaspora community in the Houston area, the exhibition includes interactive experiences so school groups and residents can learn more about the Asian countries and cultures that contribute to the city’s vibrancy. Phuong noted that Vietnam’s presence includes a special digital display of Vietnamese fruit as well as an introduction to the Vietnamese alphabet and the language’s mono-syllabic characteristics. The webcomics add depth and context to the museum exhibits and expand the center’s reach to those who cannot visit in person, such as those living in Saigon. They came about during the COVID-19 pandemic. Focus groups with students and educators in Houston revealed a need for educational materials that were not video lectures. With a background in literacy work, the idea of webcomics was obvious for Phuong.
Courtesy of Asia Society Texas/Chris Dunn.
Everything related to Asia Society is incredibly well thought-out and planned to have as much impact as possible, so it's not surprising to learn that the webcomics also help to further the group’s education endeavors which are committed to changing and enlarging how Asia is taught in classrooms. “We didn't study Vietnamese history or culture in school,” Phuong said. “That just never happened outside of the Vietnam War, and even in that case it was the American perspective.”
Courtesy of Asia Society Texas/Chris Dunn.
These comics are a way for teachers to bring Asian topics and Asian American experiences into obvious contexts such as history and social sciences, but also across a variety of subjects. For example, the strong environmental messages found in “Sơn Đoòng” foster obvious connections with science discussions. The comics are further woven into various lesson plans provided as part of the subscription-based Asia in the Classroom program that allows curricula to grow beyond an America-centric teaching of Asia.
Representation and connections
An important part of having this global perspective involves platforming voices from outside America as exemplified by the webcomic series. For example, Saigon-based artist Estince Voi fills each with bright colors and evocative expressions reminiscent of truyện tranh and the illustrations he practiced while growing up in Phan Thiết. The other webcomics involved similar cross-national collaborations. While noting the process involved innumerable challenges related to time zones, language barriers and payment logistics, Phuong stressed the importance of doing so to remain true to the group’s identity and because the in-house team “isn’t experts on everything.”
Reading the webcomics and recognizing representations of one’s own culture and heritage is important, but so is their ability to forge connections between Asian cultures. When thinking about how readers here in Vietnam could approach the project, Phuong shared: “It would be great for those readers to look into the other stories we have to offer and also think about Vietnamese Americans here and see the differences and also how despite being here we're still celebrating the core of Vietnamese culture and in a way that I hope is enjoyable and respectful and building that kind of conversation.”
This promotion of Vietnamese American stories is personally relevant for Phuong who was interviewed about her own story as a first-generation Vietnamese American whose first language was Vietnamese. Her experiences will be woven into an upcoming webcomic about a Vietnamese American and a student from El Salvador who connect in Houston over their shared family legacy of fishing, as written and illustrated by the esteemed Laura Gao. Adventures of Asia also plans to add stories from other Asian countries such as the Philippines and Taiwan while hoping to connect with more audiences and organizations around the world. “Our goal is to continue expanding the series and sharing beyond the state of Texas and the US and of course, in Vietnam it would be incredible to have readers,” Phuong said.
